Page 115 of Hexbound
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Chapter 28
THE TRIPto Willoughby Hollow proved uneventful. Snow was beginning to fall as Bishop and Verity exited the carriage they'd shared with Drake and Eleanor. Ascension had finally arrived and all of the sorcerers of the Order would be travelling here to bear witness.
Including the one who formed the greatest threat to his father: the son who mirrored him.
Bishop's half brother.
If there was one weakness Drake owned, it was the thought of Sebastian.
The horses stamped with sweat-slicked flanks as the carriage rocked to the side, disbursing its contents. Their steamy breath fogged the air. Bishop fidgeted as he helped Verity down and looked around. He'd barely been able to sleep the night before, too many possibilities of what could happen today running through his mind. Though he wanted Verity at his side, it scared him a little, especially after holding her in his arms for the last two nights. She'd become precious to him in a way that he still didn't think he could quite accept, and the thought of her life being snatched away.... It terrified him.
According to Cleo Montcalm, Sebastian was still out there with his wild, impossible power; and the Earl of Tremayne, the demon, and Morgana were still at large. Horroway had been an important thread, but still only a thread. It would all come down to today.
"Still no change of heart?" Bishop asked his father lightly as Drake stepped down from the carriage. The forest around them was so still, with soft drifts of snowflakes blanketing the firs and beeches.
Drake glanced around. He looked like he'd aged ten years in a month, frost-bitten streaks stealing through his dark hair. Finally, he looked back at Bishop. "No change of heart." He hesitated. "I've been given a second chance with Sebastian. I don't intend to lose it. I can't lead the Order anymore, Adrian. I just can't."
It was a hard medicine to swallow, but Bishop felt like he finally understood his father's need to save this son. Drake had made a choice last month: Lucien's life in exchange for losing the chance to save Sebastian. He still wore the weight of that impossible choice, and knowing now there was a chance to make amends for it.... The weight was lifting, and Bishop could see a spark of the man he'd once known as a father returning. How could he want his father to lose that spark? That hope?
Because the practical side of him also saw the future unfolding in front of them. Chaos, instability, an inside war that might tear the Order apart if the wrong person became Prime.
And Madrigal Brown, the Sicarii leader, with her knife poised over his father's throat.
"I thought Sebastian wasn't responding to you anymore?" Bishop asked, his breath fogging in the chill air.
"I'll keep trying."
Of course he would. "Do we even know if he's still alive?"
"Cleo knows. She's linked to him, and she tells me he's still there."
"So he's shut you out?" Bishop asked. Eleanor hovered on the top step of the carriage and Bishop reached up to help her down. The left side of her face was still faintly lax, but healers had been in to work on her again this week and Bishop could see a spark of her old self in her eyes.
"Maybe. If I could reach him once, then I can do so again," Drake told him.
If only it were that simple. Sebastian represented danger to his mind. A threat. Bishop didn't like the idea of that, however, as Verity had politely pointed out, not everything in the world should be seen as a threat. It was the assassin in him; looking at the reality of the situation rather than seeing it through the rose-colored glasses of familial affection, as Drake did.
This will only cause trouble. He knew that. And he was helpless to turn his father aside from this quest. A part of him wanted Drake to succeed. He loved his father. He'd do anything for him.
Even stand by and watch as Drake committed to this path that might damn them all.
Snow crunched under his boots and at his side, Eleanor lurched as she staggered on uneven ground.
Bishop caught her other hand as she staggered on the gravel. "Here. Easy, Eleanor. You don't want to fall."
She patted his hand gratefully, then limped forward to Verity's side.
Bishop watched them step toward the forest. "You can't save everyone," he said, turning back to his father. "Just remember that. If Sebastian's blocked you out, then maybe he'll never listen to you. Don't throw everything away on a hope that might never come true. There has to be a point where you let go."
Drake gave him a sadly bemused smile. "If it were your mother, would you let her go so easily?"
God.The words were a knife to the chest. He stared his father in the eye. "Don't forget... once upon a time I had to make that choice and Ididlet go."
Turning around, he walked away, bitterly swallowing the lump in his throat. He knew it had been for the best. The pain was too great and his mother had pleaded with him—beggedhim—to let her go. Memory slashed through him, twisting his innards into knots. So much damage. So much pain. Christ save him, she'd been drowning in it. The peace on her face when he slowly, gently eased her over the threshold of death had been the only thing capable of saving his sanity at the thought of what he'd done.
Bishop clenched his gloved fingers into a fist, forcing the tension within him to dissolve.
